Tutorial:

Conceptual Design of a Bicycle Frame

Based on a report partly written by Lena Hartung*, Nicolas Torgau*,
Thomas Lehmann, Kristian Holm and Matthias Goelke (*Students at Altair)

Updated to HW 2017.2 by Sanjay Nainani

Part 1: Bike frame construction

In this section we are going to construct a bicycle frame as shown below in

HyperMesh

Step 1: Open a new HyperMesh session and define temporary nodes

Go to Geometry  Create  Nodes XYZ

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The coordinates of the bounding nodes are shown below.

Step 2: Build lines

First, create a Component Collector (i.e. storage container of the lines /
geometry), then start building lines with respect to the previously defined
temporary nodes

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The geometry (lines) regarding chain stay and seat stay are build by
employing “Smooth Nodes”

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Finally, delete all temporary nodes as they may confuse you later on.
Save the geometry (lines) as an *.hm file ( bike_frame_1.hm).

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Make sure the User Profile OptiStruct is selected
Load the hm file from the previous step: bike_frame_1.hm

Part 2: 1D Beam element creation

We assume that the frame is made out of aluminum tubes which will be
modeled as 1D elements (i.e. CBEAM elements). The seat post is made out of
steel.
Note: Beam element allow for axial loads, shear forces, bending and torsion
moments. In beam elements the neural axis and shear center are non-
coincident.
It is recommend to make use the predefined 1D element cross-sections
available with the OptiStruct library.

The beams cross-section is best defined via HyperBeam.

Go to Properties  HyperBeam

As “standard section library” select OPTISTRUCT, as section type choose

“Tube”, then click “create” which opens up the GUI of HyperBeam.

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Define / create two beamsections (here named: tube and seat_post):
• tube: outer radius (DIM1) is 10 mm, inner radius (DIM2) is 8 mm
• seat_post: outer radius (DIM1) is 10 mm, inner radius (DIM2) is 8 mm

Both beamsections will be stored in a beamsection collector, here named

“tubes”.
Note, that all the relevant cross-sectional data such as area, moments of
inertia are automatically calculated and listed in the side bar of HyperBeam.
The beamsections will be referenced inside the corresponding Property
collectors, later.

Exit HyperBeam by clicking the model view icon in the top left corner.
Next we define the material collector and property collector.

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Create Material
Right click in the Model Browser: Create  Material

Enter the name (Aluminum) and choose as Card image MAT1. You can enter
the below values directly here in the entity editor or you can right click on the
material and click Card Edit option and enter the values there.
In the material card enter the values below:
RHO = 2.7E-9 t/mm3 E = 70000 N/mm² Nu = 0.3

The bikes seat post will be made of steel. Thus an additional material
collector must be defined (using standard values):
RHO = 7.9E-9 t/mm3 E = 210000 N/mm² Nu = 0.3

Create Property
Later on, the bicycle frame will be partitioned into 7 “domains” with different
radiuses, respectively:

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(Note: In the image the model is already meshed; meshing will be discussed
further below).

Right click in the Model Browser: Create  Property and define its name e.g.
“top_tube”

As Card image select PBEAML. Also select the appropriate material for top
tube it is Aluminum.
Thus, the property collector contains the information about PBEAML (i.e. the
properties of a beam element by cross-sectional dimensions) and the
associated material.
“Inside” the property collector the beamsection of interest needs to be
referenced. Click on “beamsec” to select the beamsection of interest here
which would be “tube”.

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All the other property collectors are created in just the same way.

Name of Property Material BeamSection

Head Tube Aluminum tube
Down Tube Aluminum tube
Seat Tube Aluminum tube
Seat Post Steel seat_post
Seat Stay Aluminum tube
Chain Stay Aluminum tube

Create Beam elements

There are several ways to model CBEAM elements in HyperMesh.

Here the Line Mesh subpanel is used.
Go to: Mesh  Create  Line Mesh

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Depending on your very personal working process & philosophy you may
mesh all lines in a single step (note: then all elements would be assigned the
same property which then needs adjustments later on). Alternatively, the
different “domains” are meshed individually (step by step) which allows to
assign the correct property directly.
The frame is meshed with an element size 100 mm.

Changing the visualization mode of the element display to “1D Detailed

Element Representation”

The frame may look like:

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Somehow it looks like meshing of the head tube failed.

This problem may be related to a corrupt line (problem with geometry) or to

a wrong orientation of the element cross-section. Reviewing (see panel
below) the orientation of the elements cross section confirms the latter.

Thus, we manually adjust the local xy-plane of the 1D element by defining an

orientation vector with respect to its global coordinates (see help menu for
details).

After updating / correcting the element orientation, the frame can be

displayed as:

Before proceeding with the definition

of loads and constraints, make sure
that the mesh is compatible i.e. that
all elements are connected to each
other.
Toolsedgespreview equiv

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The highlighted nodes indicate that the mesh is not merged there (i.e.
location of multiple nodes). Making use of “equivalence” (with an appropriate
“tolerance” value) helps to overcome this issue.

Save the model as an HM binary file: bike_frame_2.hm

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Part 3: Analysis set up

Load the hm file from the previous step: bike_frame_2.hm

Create constraints
The frame is (arbitrarily) constraint as shown below (translational dof’s are
assumed to be fixed)

Create a load collector named “constraints”; no Card image needed:

Right click in the Model Browser  create  Load Collector

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Once the load collector exists, the constraints can be applied.
Go to BCs  Create  Constraints

Create loads
We arbitrarily assume that the biker’s weight is 120kg. In addition, the pedals
are “loaded” by another200 N (acting in negative z-direction, respectively).
Moreover, a safety factor of 2 is applied.

Create a load collector named “force”; no Card image needed.

Right click in the Model Browser  create  Load Collector
Enter the Force subpanel to create the load: BCs  Create  Forces

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Of course, the way the force is applied to the “bearing” is overly simplified. In
a somewhat more detailed study you may improve the model as depicted
below …

Create a LoadStep
In the LoadStep the forces and constraints from above are referenced i.e.
these loads and constraints must be taken into account during the analysis.
Go to Set up  Create  Load Step

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This will pop-up a new window

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In this enter the desired name and select for type “linear static”.
Check “Single Point Constraint (SPC)” and select the load collector containing
the constraints.
Check “Load” and select the load collector containing the loads (forces).

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The model-set is completed, the model browser in HyperMesh lists the
following entities (note, the order of the entities may be different in your
model)

Save your model as bike_frame_3.hm

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Start the Analysis
Load the model bike_frame_3.hm and start the analysis in the OptiStruct
subpanel

In the OptiStruct panel make sure that “run options” is set to “analysis” and
“export” option is set to “all”. Then run/start the analysis.
Activate “view out” for more information about the analysis run i.e.
demanded memory, model information, warnings, errors etc.

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Postprocessing with HyperView

In the *.out file we can read that the mass of the “base” design is 1.43 kg

Z-Displacement Contour Plot

The z-displacement at the “bearing” (node 7) is -0.706 mm, at the top end of
the “seat tube” (node 1) is -0.796 mm.

Contoured z-displacement plot (scaled by factor 50) with undeformed frame

(in brown color)

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Element stresses (SAMAX)

Maximum element stress (SAMAX) is 67 MPa (N/mm2 (i.e. SAMAX = element

stress at point A of the Beam-
elements is plotted for the
entire element)

Element stresses (SBMAX)

Maximum element stress (SBMAX) is 57 MPa.

Now, you may say: Job Done …

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